What is Flare Network (FLR)? A Beginner’s Guide

The data is vital for building innovative applications. The blockchain industry has been thriving for many years. And developers are introducing new concepts using this technology. However, the developers often need to rely on third applications if they need some data from another blockchain network.

And sometimes, they even need to connect their applications to centralized organizations so they may collect their desired data. It ultimately increases the vulnerability of their applications. And the users are also concerned about the decentralization status of these applications.

Flare Network is trying to solve this problem while providing all the important features one may expect to have in a blockchain network.

What is Flare Network (FLR)?

Flare Network is a layer-1 blockchain network dedicated to providing smart contract capability along with interoperability. The platform uses a range of decentralized technologies like F-assets, Flare Time Series Oracle, and the State Connector that enable users to collect the required data from other chains and the internet.

The platform is aimed at improving the performance of proof-of-stake consensus mechanism without compromising on decentralization. The developers can easily migrate their applications across the Web3 ecosystem using the channels established by the Flare Network.

Importance of Flare Network

Flare network provides access to high-integrity data without involving any centralized parties. The platform eliminates the hacking vulnerabilities associated with token bridges and wrapping services. Instead, it provides a secure environment for sharing value between decentralized applications.

Like Polkadot and Kusama, Flare Network also has a canary network called Songbird where developers can thoroughly test their projects before going live.

The platform has designed the Flare Ecosystem Grant Program to encourage more developers to migrate their appplications to this network. Ethereum is the biggest custodian of decentralized applications. Therefore, Flare Network offers EVM-compatibility so that more developers can migrate their applications without any trouble.

Flare Network Brief History

The Flare Network was introduced by Hugo Philion (CEO), Sean Rowan, and Dr. Nairi Usher in 2019. Hugo and Sean have the Master of Science degree in Machine Learning whereas Dr. Nairi has a doctorate in quantum computing and a Master of Science in physics. The founders have established a strong team of financial experts and engineers over the years.

The Flare team raised around $11.3 million through several rounds. The project is backed by renowned investors including Charlie Lee, Kinetic Capital, Do Kwon, Ripple, and Digital Currency Group. The project was initially designed to improve the performance of XRP Ledger in 2020.

However, the team worked hard to introduce a platform that can integrate cross-chain smart contract functionality. And after two years of development, the project was launched in observation mode in July 2022. And later on, the project was made public after rigorous testing in September 2022.

Flare Network Infrastructure

Flare Network uses a set of technologies to provide trustless interoperability and decentralized cross-chain connectivity.

F-Assets

The users can mint tokens on Flare Network using this framework. They need to lock FLR tokens as collateral to mint these assets. The platform has a collateralization of 250%. It means a user needs to lock $2500 worth of FLR tokens as collateral if they want to mint $1000 worth of ETH tokens.

The platform charges 5% fees for minting these tokens. The fees is transferred to the participants who help with maintaining the collateral pools. The F-assets framework is primarily designed to break the barriers between protocols so that the developers can access smart contracts from a wide range of blockchains.

State Connector

Flare Network uses certain APIs to connect to different websites on the internet. State Connector is designed to keep a track of the transactions that occur outside of the network. Thus, the developers can easily collect data from several blockchain networks and the internet without any security concerns.

The platform has a network of independent attestation providers that help with the validation process before publishing data on the main chain. State Connector also incorporates the binary forking protocol to prevent malicious activities.

Flare Time Series Oracle

Flare Time Series Oracle is responsible for providing real-time information such as transaction data, events, and token prices to the dapps that are built on this network. The developers no longer need to rely on centralized services as FTSO can easily collect data from the internet and other blockchain networks.

The platform has around 100 data providers that regularly update information on the Flare Network. The developers need to provide a small fee for accessing the data.

Songbird Network

As it’s discussed earlier, Songbird is the canary network that plays the role of testing ground for Flare network. The developers can test several features and updates of their applications on this network before publishing them on the Flare network. SGB is the native token of this network that plays an essential role in the governance of the Flare ecosystem.

The SGB token holders have the right to decide the future of the platform through their voting power. Currently, only Flare Foundation submits proposals for network’s growth. But the team is working on transferring complete governance rights to the community members.

Flare Tokenomics

FLR is the native token of the Flare Network that developers need to pay as a fee when requesting data from the platform. Similarly, the users need to lock their FLR tokens as collateral when minting tokens from other chains. With a circulating supply of 12.45 billion tokens, FLR has a market cap of $437.6 million. It ranks among 100 best cryptocurrencies in terms of market cap.

Conclusion

Flare is a layer-1 blockchain network designed to provide smart contract capability along with interoperability. It’s an EVM compatible platform that makes it easier for developers to migrated applications from Ethereum. The developers can collect their desired data using this platform without worrying about security threats.

The platform uses several advanced technologies to collect data from other blockchains and the internet. If you need more information about how Flare Network works, feel free to get in touch with us. We also invite you to subscribe to our weekly newsletter if you need regular updates about Bitcoin and crypto market.